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Screening tests offered by BioMaxima SA enable quick selection of people who may have contracted the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, causing COVID-19. The test results are known after 10 minutes. Developing new diagnostic methods is of great importance, especially taking into account the confirmed presence of the coronavirus in Poland.
The Lublin company BioMaxima has introduced a test to its offer, thanks to which it is faster and easier to select people suspected of contracting the COVID-19 coronavirus.
– We have a tool here that will enable some more reliable selection of the group of people who should undergo further tests and further diagnostics – President of the Management Board of BioMaxima SA Łukasz Urban told PAP.
At the moment, the tests are not in the warehouses in Lublin, and the company is importing them.
– I think they will be available in mid-March. Tests are intended for professional use, not for the individual user. They should be performed by a laboratory diagnostician in a laboratory – said Magdalena Kruk from BioMaxima in an interview with Medonet.
The test consists of qualitatively detecting the presence of IgG and IgM antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in humans. Shows if the person has recently she had contact with the coronavirus. If the test is positive, the patient should be referred for further diagnosis to rule out or confirm infection. Other tests are performed at this stage.
According to the company’s representative, the use of screening tests will allow for more precise “catching” of patients who have actually been in contact with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and may be carriers.
Test instead of a questionnaire and temperature tests
As admitted by the company’s president, the test has a very high, although limited, specificity and sensitivity, so it may give a false negative or false positive result, but in his opinion it is still a more precise tool for selecting people for further diagnostics than questionnaires or measuring temperature in people, for example, who have come back from China and are at higher risk.
– The test is a screening test. Similarly to, for example, in the case of a pregnancy test, the coronavirus test is an indication whether the patient should undergo further diagnostics – adds Magdalena Kruk.
See also: What are the symptoms of the disease caused by the coronavirus?
According to research on the coronavirus causing COVID-19 published a few days ago in the medical journal “The New England Journal of Medicine”, fever as a symptom of coronavirus infection occurs in 43,8% of people. patients admitted to the hospital and develops only during hospitalization. This means that contamination is not excluded if the temperature is not elevated.
The test offered by the Lublin company can be used in health care facilities or other authorized institutions, such as the Sanepid or the National Institute of Hygiene.
– The principle of the test is similar to that of a pregnancy test. We have a cassette with a window into which we sprinkle the research material. In our case, the material is whole blood, serum or plasma. After ten minutes, the result is displayed in the test window. Depending on whether or not colored stripes appear in the window, we determine whether the test is positive or negative – explains Kruk.
The test was developed by Hanzgou Hanzgou AllTest Biotech Co. Ltd., with which the Lublin-based company has been cooperating for a long time.
The test for the presence of antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus causing the COVID-19 disease was reported to the Office for Registration of Medicinal Products, Medical Devices and Biocidal Products in Poland, which means that it can be sold and used in initial diagnostics.
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